


Good To You

by aurons_fan



Series: Celebrity Boyfriends [1]
Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Actors, Alternate Universe - Celebrity, Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-04
Updated: 2015-05-04
Packaged: 2018-03-28 22:41:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3872434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aurons_fan/pseuds/aurons_fan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A variation of the prompt: “You’re a celebrity who just broke up and I tweeted you a selfie with the caption “date me” as a joke but you thought I was serious?" au</p><p>If Nagisa hadn’t taken his phone, Makoto would have never met Matusoka Rin, international movie star. So, really, he should be thanking Nagisa for inadvertently giving him an English tutor. </p><p>Not that Makoto needed help in English.</p><p>(He really did.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Good To You

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my first dip in the Free! fandom and jeez. I was expecting this thing to be maybe 3K at most. Also I totally read my first MakoRin and was like "Haha this could never happen" and I quickly slipped and fell into a pit of crying and sobbing and I now love this ship something embarrassing.
> 
> Anyway. Uh. Yeah. I hope you enjoy!
> 
> (Even though I listened to Set It Off's "Why Worry" a _lot_ while writing this, the title is from "Good To You" by Marianas Trench)

If Nagisa had taken his phone any other time, Makoto would’ve fought harder to get it back. But considering he had a huge Bio test tomorrow at 9am sharp, he only frowned and stayed hunched over the table, continuing to focus on the notes spread out in front of him.

Haru, on the other hand, had no such qualms. “Hey,” he said, leaning up from where he was laying on the couch. “Don’t do that.”

Haru’s halfhearted attempt to get Makoto back his phone went unfounded as Nagisa danced out of his reach and tapped a few buttons, grinning at the two of them “Did you guys hear???” He exclaimed,  turning Makoto’s phone around to show them. “Rin! Matsuoka Rin is single and, according this his stream of dramatic, post break-up tweets, is ready to mingle!”

Out of the corner of his eye, Makoto could see Haru give an almost imperceptible shrug and turn back to watching television. He definitely heard Nagisa’s huff and tried to block them both out.

“Please don’t tell me you have no idea who Rin is?” Nagisa pleaded, slamming his hands down on the table. One of Makoto’s notes fluttered into the air, but before he could even make a move to grab it, Haru snatched it out of the air and set it in front of Makoto. “He’s _huge_ and he’s _famous_ and he’s crying to his fans about being dumped and there are people on twitter _sobbing in joy_ over the fact that he is available. Don’t either of you _care_?”

Makoto nodded in thanks before turning to Nagisa, rubbing his eyes behind his glasses. “I’ve seen a few of his movies,” he said, smiling slightly. “But I have a test _really_ early tomorrow morning and Haru is showing you around campus tomorrow, so why don’t you rest up for that?”

Nagisa huffed again, crossing his arms and giving them both looks. “I can’t believe you two have become so _boring_ since going off to college!” he exclaimed, pointed looking away. “Rei-chan said it would be all studying and tests but come _on_ , there has to be fun!”

Shrugging, Makoto turned back to his notes. When Nagisa still stayed quiet as well, he glanced up again, to see Nagisa playing with Makoto’s phone, eyes intense. He glanced over at Haru, who was still transfixed with the television, before shrugging and turning back to his notes.

Whatever Nagisa was doing probably wasn’t that important.

\--

Whoever created early morning midterms should be fired. Makoto yawned as he shuffled with the rest of his classmates out of the exam room, heading down the stairs to the front entrance. He heard snippets of conversation about the exam and half wanted to join in and complain (cause what was _with_ question seven and its four parts?), but the group of people walked away before he could work up the nerve to say anything.

He sighed and tugged his phone out of his pocket. It was still pretty early – maybe Nagisa had managed to actually get a tour of the campus from Haru instead of just the pool. Makoto snorted as he turned on his phone. Probably not.

When his phone finally beeped on and informed him that he had over three hundred Twitter notifications, he stared at it for what felt like a very, very long time. Long enough that someone all but shoved past him to get out the door, and he moved to the wall, staring at his phone in disbelief.

Three hundred notifications?! Makoto thumbed open the phone and scrolled through Twitter, trying to figure out what happened. He only followed four people! He barely tweeted, except to talk to Nagisa or Rei or to retweet Emergency Kittens!

Before he could even calm himself down with an emergency kitten (because the notifications kept rolling in), he realized that there was another tweet in his account – a picture of him studying last night. His glasses were shoved against his face and his expression was serious as he stared down at (Makoto squinted at the screen), his Bio notes. The message that accompanied the picture read: “@MatsuokaRin: if you’re so available, why don’t you date me? when I’m not studying, I can be a lot of fun. ;)”

Makoto felt his heart stop. Ah. So that was what Nagisa was doing with his phone last night.

Before he could put together a plan to throttle the underclassmen, he clicked on the message, wincing as he read it again (was subtlety not something Nagisa practiced??), and realized that this Rin had not only favorited the tweet, but had responded with “@MakotoT: Well then. What are you studying?”

Makoto blinked long and hard, reading the responses of other Twitter users screeching and flailing about why hadn’t Rin responded to _them_. Some of them approved of what he looked like, but a lot more people tweeted at him, cursing his name and ability to get “Rin-sama’s” attention.

Makoto really didn’t know how to handle this, but staring at his phone in the middle of the science building was probably not the best way. He kept getting weird looks when his phone kept beeping from new Twitter notifications.

It was probably best if he just ignored it. Maybe it would stop eventually.

\--

At lunch with Nagisa and Haru, Makoto tried to keep his mind off the fiasco on Twitter, but after the thirty-third ring of his phone, Nagisa rolled his eyes and attempted to snatch it off the table. Makoto only grabbed it just in time. Haru inched out of the way to keep his drink up right.

“Who keeps messaging you, Mako-chan?” Nagisa said, waving his arm for the phone. “Someone’s popular today!”

“People keep tweeting at me because Rin responded to your tweet!” Makoto said, trying to keep his voice above a whine. He wasn’t very successful. “And I didn’t think it would keep going and I don’t know how to turn off the notifications…” He trailed off when Nagisa’s eyes widened. “What?” he said, clicking on his phone to see fifteen more notifications in the last few minutes. “Is something wrong?”

“Rin messaged you?!” Nagisa said. He then snatched Makoto’s phone out of his hands before Makoto could protest. His thumbs flew over the keyboard, before his eyes widened even more and he let out a nervous giggle. “Oh my god, _Rin_ added you on Twitter! He Direct Messsaged you!”

Haru was absolutely no help in this, Makoto thought frowning, as Haru stared at the two of them with a blank expression. “Is that supposed to mean anything?” Makoto asked, crossing his arms.

Nagisa shoved the phone in Makoto’s face, and Makoto could see a thread beginning with "@MatsuokaRin: I wouldn’t normally do this, but you’re kinda cute and it’s been a shitty day. Wanna grab coffee sometime?”

Makoto’s eyes widened as Haru leaned forward to skim over the message as well. Nagisa, however, looked moments away from screaming in joy. “I…” Makoto said, looking between the message Nagisa and Haru. “I guess that’s good?” Without responding, Nagisa pulled the phone back and started typing, ignoring Makoto’s hand waving. “Wait, stop that! That’s what got me in trouble in the first place!”

“Rin asked you for coffee,” Nagisa said after hitting send. Makoto could vaguely see the words, ‘I’d love to get coffee. Where and when? :DDD’ in the message thread and tried not to groan. “Rin! Matusoka Rin, who is _known_ for being aloof and standoffish who is _single_ and who is really, really _attractive_ – and oh did I mention that he’s _famous_ –  just asked you for coffee, and you think this is a bad idea?”

Makoto attempted to process what Nagisa had just said when Haru huffed, leaning back in his chair. “How do we know he won’t murder Makoto?” Haru said, crossing his arms. “Or sick a legion of fans onto him?”

Before Nagisa could do something horrible like actually _ask_ , Makoto grabbed his phone off the table and shook his head. “It’s just coffee Haru,” he said, and frowned when Haru huffed again.

“Besides,” Nagisa added, grinning. “If he wanted his fans to attack, he would’ve publically tweeted about coffee! Then they’d know when and where to take you out!”

And if Makoto gulped a loudly and nervously, well, that wasn’t his fault.

\--

A few days later, as Makoto walked into a small coffee shop maybe a few minutes off his school’s campus, it hit him that he was meeting up with someone who had their own Wikipedia page. And maybe that he should be a little more concerned about his fans, who were _still_ favoriting his tweet to Rin and vice versa. He’d gotten over a hundred followers and it was so _creepy_ to see all these people who wanted to read his conversations just because some actor acknowledged him.

Either way, he glanced around the coffee shop, half expecting to see Rin surrounded by a large and noisy entourage, but all he saw was a guy with bright red hair tucked under a baseball hat (so that _wasn’t_ Photoshop in all those pictures) with big, black glasses staring at his phone at a small table in the back. He took a deep breath and approached the table.

Maybe he hovered there for a while, unsure to sit down or to wait for Rin (if it was Rin?) to notice him, when the guy shook his head. “Sorry to disappoint, but I’m not doing autographs.”

“Oh, uh.” Makoto took a deep breath dug through his pocket and grabbed his phone, fumbling in his attempt to pull up Twitter. “I’m Makoto? I think I’m meeting you for coffee?”

Slowly, the guy glanced up, and after staring at Makoto for a long moment (during which, Makoto was seriously considering just turning and leaving the shop), and then grinned widely, and kicked a chair over towards him. “I’m Rin,” Rin said, quite unnecessarily.

“I’m Makoto,” Makoto said and resisted the urge to slap his forehead. “Which I already said. Uh. Well.” He grinned, rubbing the back of his neck. Even if he had only seen a few movies that Rin was in, and just because Rin was an actor, it was ridiculous that he’d be nervous. According to the Internet, they were around the same age. Granted, Rin was off doing international films and he was… taking a break from his studies to _meet_ an international film star.  “If you want me to order so you’re not recognized…”

Rin shrugged and raised a hand. Makoto turned and almost crashed to a young man who dropped off two coffees onto their table before heading behind the counter again. “I hope coffee is alright,” he said, before nodding to the chair. “So are you going to…?”

Makoto all but collapsed into his chair and let out a soft groan. “I’m sorry. This is so awkward. I just…” He chewed on his lip, playing with his phone. “My friend actually sent that first message? And I didn’t even know about it until you had responded! So if…”

He stopped as Rin leaned forward, giving him an intense stare. “Are you saying you didn’t even want to get coffee?”

Makoto shook his head, his face flushing. “No! No I do! I just…” He frowned as Rin grinned and started to laugh, covering his face with his hands. “What’s so funny?”

“Most people don’t introduce themselves to me with a ‘sorry I actually had no interest in meeting you,’” Rin said, still laughing behind his hands.

Makoto frowned. “I didn’t want to lie.”

Rin waved a hand and leaned back in his chair. Makoto tried not to squirm as he could practically feel Rin’s eyes inspecting him. “So what’s your story?” he finally asked. “Your friend thought it was funny to set you up on a date with a celebrity?”

“Well, I don’t think any of us actually expected you to respond,” Makoto said. “It’s just…” He really couldn’t stop fidgiting. Maybe it was the fact that Rin was _so_ not what he was expecting (but with a guy whose movie posters always showed off his dangerous sharp teeth, could you really blame him for being nervous?). “I just don’t really know what to say.”

“Well,” Rin said, tapping his coffee cup on the table. “You said you’re studying so I’m guessing you’re a student?”

Makoto thought about cutting him off to remind him that it was Nagisa who told him, but he decided against it. With a sharp nod, he finally grabbed the cup of coffee and hastily took a sip. He must have winced because Rin pushed a container of sugars next to him. “You don’t want to hear about _that_ ,” Makoto said, laughing slightly. “I mean, it’s nothing compared to the things you must go through every day!”

There was a long pause, and Makoto looked up from adding sugar to his coffee to see Rin staring at him. They sat there in silence for what felt like an extremely long time, but probably was only a few minutes, before Makoto piped up.

“I’m in school to be a teacher,” he said, rubbing a hand through his hair. “I swam in high school and I loved it but like… I dunno. I don’t think I’m cut out for that. But I loved getting to teach kids how to swim and so. It seemed like a good fit!” He glanced over to Rin, who still seemed interested (at the very least, he wasn’t on his phone, bored), and frowned to himself. “Though, to be honest, I’m doing _horribly_ in English. I mean, I thought I was okay in high school but suddenly, I’m stumbling over conjugations and…” He paused as Rin practically snorted into his drink in a poor attempt to hide his laughter. Makoto frowned even deeper. “You don’t have to make fun.”

“I’m fluent in English,” Rin said, grinning a little, showing off his incredibly sharp teeth. Makoto tried to not roll his eyes because, being able to speak a few lines in a couple of movies did _not_ mean he was fluent, but Rin seemed to already know his train of thought and shook his head. “I lived in Australia for a few years when I was a kid. Thought I was going to be a swimming superstar but…” he went quiet for a minute, and Makoto grew worried again. “Well. I mean. If you really need help with your English work, I could help out.”

Makoto took a sip of his drink (much sweeter. So much better), and gave him a look. “Even after this disaster of a coffee…” he hesitated, leaving off the word _date_ and racking his brain for anything else. “Meet up?”

“Disaster?” Rin asked, raising an eyebrow. “If someone had pointed me out and people started flagging me down for autographs, _then_ it would be a disaster. But this?” he said, leaning back in his chair, legs almost knocking into Makoto’s. “This is fine.”

And Makoto could somehow see it… was? In preparations for this date (if one could call studying interviews and past press junkets _preparations_ ), he always could tell Rin had this very confident air of strength that just oozed through the screen. But here he seemed comfortable. It almost felt like Makoto was taking to Haru (although they didn’t really need to talk, but that was a different story), but it certainly didn’t feel like he was talking to a _celebrity_.

Someone who the girls a few tables over would flip if they realized they were seated so close to.

“So come on,” Rin said, knocking Makoto out of his train of thought. “What part of the English language boggles your mind?”

Makoto tried to scowl at him, but Rin just grinned and he ended up echoing the sentiment.

After an hour into their impromptu lesson, Rin looked as though he regretted offering to help Makoto out. Makoto would’ve felt bad except… well, no. He did kind of feel bad.

“I hope you know,” Rin said, his eyes wide. “That you somehow sound like a wounded animal.” He grinned as Makoto stammered out an excuse (because despite what Rin might think, he didn’t sound _that_ bad. Just… off) and took a long swig of his coffee. “If you want, I can help you out for the next couple of weeks.”

Makoto looked up from the napkin Rin had scribbled some notes onto, confused. “I’d love the help, and while it’s really cool to hang out with a celebrity,” Makoto admitted, sitting in straight. “But like. Aren’t you afraid of …” he lowered his voice, glancing around the coffee shop. “Of your fans noticing?”

Rin scoffed, leaning forward in his seat. “Well, we can always take it back to your place.” He raised an eyebrow when Makoto stared at him, eyes wide. “Or we can go to other shops. And no. I don’t really care. Apparently Superman was right. Glasses really are a good disguise.”

“But don’t you have other things to do?” Makoto said, frowning. “I mean, I don’t want to take up your time—”

“Look,” Rin said, finally tugging off his glasses and rubbing at his eyes. Apparently, the magazines that had said that his bright red eyes were only matched by the intensity of his hair were not wrong. “I have some time in the city, and I really don’t want to spent it sitting in my hotel room alone, alright? It’s fine. I promise.”

“But,” Makoto protested, and sighed when Rin shot him a hard look. “Fine. Fine, yes. I’d love to have you help me out with my English work. Can I ask something though?”

Snorting, Rin shoved his glasses back on his face and Makoto ignored a twinge in his stomach. “Besides ‘is _this_ how it’s supposed to be pronounced?’ Because I’ve heard that a lot today.”

“No. Well, yes, later but…” Makoto said, stumbling over his words as Rin grinned again. “Just why did you answer that tweet? If I were famous, I don’t think I’d answer some fan’s message. What if I were a serial killer or something?”

The smile didn’t slide off of Rin’s face, but it dimmed a little, and Makoto half-wished he hadn’t said anything. “I …” Rin started, trying to run a hand through his hair and scowling a little when he seemingly remembered he was wearing a hat. “You just seemed nice, okay?”

The tweet raced back through Makoto’s mind (he’d have to either scold Nagisa or thank him for all of this) and he winced. “With that kind of creepy message?” Makoto looked up and Rin’s face was now slowly starting to match his hair color, and he smiled a bit. “Or did you mean the picture?”

“I don’t have to explain,” Rin shot back, crossing his arms. He kept scowling as Makoto continued smiling, and eventually he broke under Makoto’s gaze. “You looked… fine,” he said, offering an awkward hand wave. “And if you think that message was creepy, you haven’t seen some of the weird shit I get every day.” He shuddered a little. “People are fucking weird.”

Makoto didn’t really have an answer to that (because, yeah, people are weird, but he’d probably never seen it on the same scale as Rin, even with all the people who kept replying to him). He blinked when his phone was plucked out off of the table and Rin started fiddling around with it, before shoving it back across the table without a word, and stood.

“Just shoot me a text with your number,” he said, tilting his hat over his eyes. “This was… fun.”

He turned and walked away before Makoto could say anything.

\--

When he finally arrived home, he could vaguely smell food being cooked in the kitchen and his stomach grumbled, glad that Haru had finally moved past cooking only mackerel for dinner.

“What are you making?” he asked, slipping out of his shoes.

“I thought you had a date,” Haru responded, not bothering to move out of the kitchen.

“It was…” Makoto started, walking into the kitchen and trying not to slouch over when he saw that Haru _was_ making mackerel. “Interesting. He gave me English lessons.”

That caused Haru to look away from his food, a single eyebrow raised in shock. Makoto shrugged.

“Or okay. He tried, and got annoyed every time I mispronounced a word. He kept saying ‘This is easy! How can you not pick it up!?’” Makoto slipped out of the kitchen to the small living room, flopping onto the couch.

He was only a little surprised to see that Haru followed. “But he offered to help?”

“Yeah!” Makoto leaned forward, stretching slightly. “He gave me his number and … oh. I guess I should give him mine?”

He quickly shot off a text, _Hi, this is Makoto. Thank you! :D_ , before looking back up to Haru, who was still staring at him strangely.

“Are you going to date again?” he asked. Makoto hummed softly.

“I wouldn’t call that a date, but it was nice to have someone help me out,” he said. “Besides, he’s a movie star. He’s not going to have time like he did today.” He yawned and leaned back against the couch, noting the pile of napkin notes on the table. “But today was nice.”

Before Haru could argue, Makoto’s phone buzzed on the table.

_I’m free tomorrow after 4pm. Bring a notebook or something this time._

Makoto glanced up to Haru staring at him intensely. He sniffed delicately. “I think your fish is burning.”

“He’s famous,” Haru said, and Makoto frowned. “He has legions of fans. What if one of them sees you both and puts two and two together?”

“It’ll be fine!” Makoto said. He could feel his face flushing and he quickly shook his head. “We’re not dating. He’s just helping me out.”

They stared at each other for another long moment, before Haru sniffled the air and quickly moved back to the kitchen without another word.

\--

The most stressful part about studying with Rin was probably somewhere between worrying about him being noticed and Makoto working really hard to not mess up his pronunciations too badly. Well, that, and trying to remember which coffee shop they were meeting up at this time. For their second meeting, Makoto had gone to the first coffee shop, only to get a text from Rin laughing at him from the shop across the street.

Throughout their past few lessons it hadn’t been an issue, with Rin trying to play the calm and cool tutor, but as Makoto’s lack of English knowledge became more and more apparent, his nerves became more fried as Rin grew frustrated.

“Are you kidding me,” Rin asked flatly, and Makoto winced, flipping through his notes. Rin threw his hands in the air and looked moments away from flipping the table as well. “You had it. You _had_ it and you just stopped? Just say it!”

“I was going to sound weird!” Makoto said. “Lemme just write out the sentence first…”

He had his pencil in hand, about to scribble a phrase out when he felt more than heart Rin scooting closer to him, snatching the pencil out of his hand.

“You can’t just…” Rin started, turning to give him a hard look. “If you directly translate every single word, you’ll regret it. I promise.”

On the one hand, Rin had a good point, and Makoto could remember his English professor mentioning something similar. But he could also hear a group of teenaged girls sitting a behind them, lamenting how the red-headed guy a few tables over looked  _just_ like Rin, and maybe they should go check?

And then there’s the issue that for some reason, Rin smelled really good (maybe it was just a rich person’s smell. Or a celebrity smell), and Rin was sitting way to close for him to concentrate on English Idioms and…

“Makoto?”

Makoto blinked as Rin waved a hand in his face. “Ah! Yes, I’m sorry?”

Rin raised an eyebrow and tapped Makoto’s face with the pencil. “You need a break?”

Makoto was about to shake his head but then he head the girls giggle again. Something in him snapped and he turned to face Rin. “Doesn’t it bother you?”

“You ignoring me when it comes to a vital language issue?” Rin said, crossing his arms. “Yes. Yes it does.”

Makoto turned a delicate shade of red and shook his head. “No! The…” He trailed off, and tried to subtly gesture back at the girls without alerting their attention. “People talking about you?”

“Your attempts to ignore this important language—” Rin started but Makoto must have actually let his face show some form of how he was feeling because Rin sighed and tugged his cap further on his head. “Yeah. It does. But if I react to it, then they’re more likely to see if it’s me. It’s just easier to ignore it.” He tapped Makoto’s face with the pencil again, smirking when Makoto grimaced. “It’s distracting you, isn’t it?”

It might have been, if Rin wasn’t trying so hard to not smile in an effort to hide his teeth. They had almost gotten caught in their third or fourth meeting cause Rin had burst out laughing over a phrase Makoto had stumbled over and they had to quickly slip out before the people who had noticed him alerted the entire shop.

“It’s…” Makoto admitted, smiling. If Rin could deal with the whispers and the people talking about him behind his back, he wasn’t going to let it bother him. Much. “It’s fine. I’m good.”

Rin raised an eyebrow and flicked Makoto’s ear with his pencil. “You’re a terrible liar,” Rin mused aloud. “Your ears are as red as my hair.”

“Well,” Makoto said. “Maybe if you focused on my English pronunciation instead of me, I would be getting better.”

Rin’s eyes narrowed. Even though he _had_ to have known Makoto was just doing that to get a rise out of him, it was clearly working, and Makoto let out a laugh.

\--

Makoto had his notes spread out on every corner of their little table, so when he first noticed Haru’s sour expression, he only gave an embarrassed little smile and tried to compile his papers.

“Sorry,” he said, haphazardly shoving papers together in piles. “I didn’t realize I’d been studying so long. How was practice?”

Haru didn’t answer him for a long moment, and when Makoto finally looked up, he finally saw Haru staring down at his phone. “You left it by the fridge,” Haru said, answering the question Makoto had been about to ask. “And someone keeps messaging you.”

He handed the phone over as it buzzed again with a message from Matsuoka Rin asking if he was free to meet up tomorrow.

Makoto nodded in thanks as he took the phone back. “Ah, thank you!” He quickly responded and when he noticed Haru was still staring down at him, he inched his papers closer to where he was sitting.

“You’re doing better in English,” Haru said, finally looking away from him and glancing down at his papers.

“Rin’s been really helpful,” Makoto said with a smile. “I mean, he keeps yelling at me but –”

“No one has recognized him yet?”

Makoto resisted the urge to laugh. “No. No it’s been okay. A few times I’ve been worried but he’s apparently used to blending in with crowds.” Haru continued staring at him, and Makoto finally inched away from the table, heading to the fridge. “Besides, he’s only going to be in the city for a week or so more, then he’s heading to—”

“Makoto.”

Makoto stopped and turned to where Haru was inspecting him closely. They had a short stare off before Haru sighed and approached him, giving him a hard look.

“When he leaves,” Haru said slowly. “What happens then?”

Makoto went quiet for another long moment, before pasting on a smile. “I’m sure he’ll be busy,” he said, reaching into the fridge. “And maybe he’ll let me keep texting him. It will have been fun at least.”

“Makoto,” Haru said, sharper than before. “I don’t care about him. I just—”

“You should!” Makoto interrupted. He could already tell where this conversation is going, and he wasn’t up for that discussion. “He’s a really great guy. Maybe one day he’ll be free and I can introduce you all and—”

“Will you be okay?”

Makoto stopped short, mouth still half open to ramble something about having Rin sign their movies or leave them autographs or something, when Haru continues staring at him. “I…”

It wasn’t fair, was it? Stories like this didn’t happen to normal people. They happened in movies or dramas or in fairy tales and it was just so much easier not to get his hopes up because he knew nothing was going to happen.

“I…” Makoto tried again, and ended up turning back to the piles of papers on the table. He could still feel Haru staring at him, and he gathered up his notes and shot him a quick smile. “I have an English test coming up in a few days. I better get back to studying.”

He knew he was running away. Haru probably knew even better than him. But there was no point in having a conversation like anything _was_ going to happen. It was probably better to nip those feelings in the bud.

\--

The next day, Makoto was about to enter the coffee shop he had first met Rin when someone crashed into him and dragged him backwards. Before he could register what was happening, he heard a loud shriek and something that sounded like tables falling, and he stumbled over his feet to stay upright.

“Someone recognized me,” the person said.

Makoto realized the person who was dragging him was Rin, and that the stampeding behind them wasn’t just in his imagination but was a group of teenaged girls that were coming at him with a terrifying force.

“I have an idea,” he said, somehow shrugging out of Rin’s grip. “Follow me, if you can keep up?”

Rin turned, slipping his glasses into his coat pocket and grinned widely. Out of the corner of his eye, Makoto could see that terrifying, competitive look that Rin always got during press conferences and ignores the way his heart was flipping around in his chest.

“Lead the way.”

Many, many, _many_ twists and turns later found Makoto and Rin slipping through a back alley and rushing up the stairs to Makoto’s apartment. They had lost the girls maybe five minutes back, with them calling and crying, but Makoto knew this section of the city. He didn’t run it as frequently as he would have liked, but he’d rushed through it enough while trying to get to class on time that he was fairly confident in getting around.

It might have been safer to go somewhere public, somewhere where Rin and he could blend in again, but Makoto was too busy thinking “safety” instead of “oh, I have a celebrity keeping up with me. Maybe he’s more athletic than I thought.”

Well, that last part did cross his mind.

“Where are we,” Rin asked, his hat askew. He tugged it off, crumpling it in his hands.

“My apartment,” Makoto said. He froze, key in the lock. “If that’s… alright with you?” Makoto turned suddenly, eyes wide. “I didn’t even think to ask if you still wanted to study today after that but… I have an exam and it would be really great if you could help one more time?”

Rin grinned and shrugged. “I mean, I was planning on helping you anyway. It’s fine.”

With a nod, Makoto opened the door and it suddenly hit him that neither he nor Haru had cleaned the apartment the night before. They hadn’t expected to have visitors and so there were papers everywhere, towels draped on the back of the couch, and dishes piled high in the sink. Makoto didn’t even turn to see Rin’s expression before he let out a wail and rushed into the apartment, attempting to quickly throw things into a semblance of order.

“It’s fine, Makoto,” Rin laughed, ignoring Makoto’s stress as he attempted to shove a pile of towels into the closet. Were he and Haru really so lazy that they couldn't put things away _ever_? “We’re just using the table right? We’ll be fine.”

“But…” Makoto protested, as Rin plopped down next to the table. “I’m sorry this isn’t as clean as where you’re probably staying is…”

Rin waved a hand and gave him an expectant look. “So, what phrases will you be butchering for me today?” He grinned when Makoto wailed again.

Rin quizzed him for a bit, glancing over his notes and making fun of what he said was, “A bunch of easy as hell phrases. I thought this shit would have been harder in _college_ ,” before growing quiet.

“You’ll do fine on your test,” he said, and Makoto glanced up from his worksheet. Rin wasn’t looking at him, instead staring past him out the window. “I mean, sure, you _sound_ like a wounded goose running in a rainstorm, but your pronunciation is decent and you seem to understand what you're saying, which is probably a lot more than what some people can say.” His eyes went soft. “I guess you won’t need my help anymore.”

Makoto ignored the tightening in his chest and reached over, lightly tapping Rin’s arm. Rin blinked a few times and finally looked away from the window, turning towards Makoto. “I probably haven’t thanked you enough for all the help you’ve given me,” Makoto said, with a bright smile. “I’m so grateful that you ended up responding to that tweet.”

“Your friend’s tweet _for_ you, right?” Rin countered with a grin. “Well. Can’t say it hasn’t been enjoyable.”

Makoto leaned back. “What fun things do you have planned now that you don’t have to see me anymore?” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he wish he hadn’t said it.

Rin went quiet again, frowning ever so slightly. “I had fun with you,” he said. “You don’t need to compare yourself, you know.”

“Ah, no, I just,” Makoto said, but Rin leaned onto the table, staring at him.

“You keep doing that,” Rin said. “I know you’re not an actor and I like you for that. You don’t…” he frowned deeper, and waved a hand. “I dunno. You don’t have to up the glitz and glam for me. I get that shit all the time and I don’t…” He went silent, leaning back on his heels and gritted his teeth. “Just be yourself around me, okay? It’s fine. I promise.”

“S-Sure,” Makoto said.

Rin looked up and sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Just… what’s on your test? Let’s focus on that.”

And while Rin wasn’t the most forthcoming with information about after that, Makoto couldn’t say he didn’t learn anything. But he did notice that the tense lines in Rin’s shoulders didn’t fade by the end of the evening.

\--

Makoto strolled out of his English test a few days later, actually feeling comfortable for once, when he felt his phone buzz in his bag. He tugged it out, half expecting it to be Rei questioning him about entrance exams or Haru asking him to pick up some fish for dinner when he noticed Rin’s name on his screen.

He frowned and quickly flipped open the phone. He’d half thought that with the way things had been at the end of their last tutoring session, Rin would just quietly fade out of his life and this whole adventure would just be a funny story to tell his friends. But instead, there was a short text saying, _I’m outside your apartment. Are you home?_ , that made Makoto frown even more.

It wasn’t like his apartment was in a bad section of the city. It was close enough to his college that he could get there within ten minutes. But it wasn’t just Nagisa or Rei waiting for him. If someone noticed Rin standing there…

He managed to make it back to his place within six minutes, practically falling to his knees huffing and puffing. Makoto could feel Rin staring at him from where he was leaning against the building, and Makoto gave a half-hearted wave.

“You could have texted to tell me you weren’t here,” Rin said, sounding annoyed and something else Makoto couldn’t place.

“Sorry,” Makoto said, smiling and looking up. “But I am now. What’s up?”

And that was when Rin, with all his sharp looks and tense shoulders, looked moments away from falling apart. Makoto’s smile dropped and he grabbed Rin’s arm and, without waiting for a response, dragged Rin up to his apartment, moving as fast as he could to unlock the door.

“Sorry!” Makoto repeated, as he slammed his apartment door shut, locking it behind him. “I didn’t think it was a good for you to be out there. Not if you’re like...” He turned as Rin all but collapsed onto the table, hands tangled up in his hair. Makoto’s eyes widened. “Uh, water! Do you want something to drink?!”

He didn’t wait to hear what Rin might answer as he raced towards the kitchen, tugging his phone out of his pocket. He shot off a quick text to Haru about giving Makoto a head’s up he was coming home (because phrasing it as “I have company”, made his cheeks heat up, even at a time like this), and grabbed a water bottle from the fridge, hurrying back to the main room.

Rin hadn’t moved, hands still tangled in his hair, breathing heavily. Makoto placed the water bottle in front of him and sat across the table, staring.

“What’s… wrong?” Makoto finally asked, as Rin started letting out something that sounded a little like a screech. Makoto's mind raced, and he grasped at something, anything to say. “You can’t be this upset about my English? I mean—”

“I fucking hate this!”

Makoto froze as Rin looked up, his eyes flashing something dangerously close to rage. “I hate the press junkets and I fucking _hate_ the people following my every move and I don’t give a flying _fuck_ if it makes me more approachable or I should meet more fans and help my image. I can’t go on a date without people stalking me. I can’t go to the corner store without it being documented.” Rin slammed his hand on the table and the water bottle tumbled off, rolling onto the floor. “I can’t fucking breathe without twenty people taking pictures of it and I _hate_ this!”

Makoto’s eyes widened as Rin folded onto himself, grabbing at his hair. “I…” Makoto stammered. “What…” He racked his brain, unsure of where to even start. “Is there someone you can talk to?”

“Why the hell do you think I’m _here_?” Rin hissed and Makoto gasped.

Okay. Alright. So that wasn’t the answer he expected. “I meant,” Makoto said, moving past that and trying not to think to hard on that because right now he couldn’t. “Could you ask your manager to lay off the press dates? Or the company? Or, uh, maybe your friends?”

Rin went quiet and Makoto started to relax ever so slightly until he realized Rin was shaking. Maybe that was the wrong thing to say. “My mother,” Rin said softly, “is my manager. My sister works with her to help my image. My best friend is in the movie with me and he’s so excited cause it’s the first time we’re working together and I don’t even _want_ to do this and I…” He let out another sound, muffled by the table.

Makoto could have sat there and stumbled over his words some more trying to help Rin in a situation he really didn’t understand. But even if he was completely lost and couldn’t comprehend what a famous celebrity was feeling, at the very least he could try _something_. So when he rounded the table and tentatively reached over and gave Rin a tight one armed squeeze, Rin shot up, eyes wide.

“I don’t…” Makoto started, a frowning slightly. “I’m not famous. But when I was younger, I really thought I could end up being a super successful swimmer. But I’m not. And I had my family and friends and it felt like everyone rooting for me to be something I didn’t really _want_ to be, and while I was terrified, I moved here to do something I wanted to do! Even if they’re still a little upset because I’m not following my best friend and I’m not following the dream they thought I wanted, I’m happy.” Rin continued staring at him and Makoto sighed. “I’m not saying quit, especially if you like what you do. But you have to find a balance. Maybe you don’t have to do big blockbusters and can stick to smaller movies, or maybe you should move to a small town where people know you so you aren’t chased for autographs or…”

Before he could ramble his way into good advice, Rin’s eyes started to water over and he burst into tears. Makoto didn’t have a chance to register that Rin was crying before Rin was clutching his shirt and sobbing into his chest. Makoto froze for a millisecond and all he could feel was the intense warmth of Rin’s body heat against his. He sucked in a breath before wrapping his arms around Rin, just letting him cry against him.

Makoto didn’t know if Rin was going to eventually stop crying and shove him off and storm out or even what he should do with his hands. He felt awkward with them just resting on Rin’s back, so he thought back to what he would do when his younger siblings would cry on him. His body went on autopilot and he started slowly running his hands through Rin’s hair.

Eventually, Rin stopped crying. Makoto felt it more than saw, with Rin’s face still tucked against his chest, but Rin’s breathing slowed and he stopped gripping Makoto’s shirt as tightly. But he didn’t stop running his hands through Rin’s hair. “If you need someone to talk to,” Makoto said, staring at the wall behind Rin. “After this, I mean. You have my number. And as long as it’s not like, 4am, I’ll be willing to talk.” He frowned and amended. “Well. If you really need to talk at 4am, I’ll be willing to listen, but I’m not sure if I’d be talking much. If you need a proverbial shoulder to cry on again…”

“Shut up,” Rin said, but the edge in his voice was completely gone. “I don’t…” his voice cracked and he sniffled, grabbing at Makoto’s shirt.

They sat like that for a little while longer, before Rin exhaled and leaned back, rubbing his eyes messily.

“Thanks,” he said, not looking up to meet Makoto’s eyes. “I… guess I needed that.”

Makoto hummed and looked down to his shirt, noting that it was practically soaked. He scrambled around for the water bottle that had slipped under the table and handed it to Rin, who ripped it open and started sucking it down.

“The remote should be somewhere around here,” he said, climbing to his feet and heading to his room. “I’ll be right back!”

He hurried to his room and shrugged out of his shirt and refused to look at himself in the mirror. No matter how much he wanted to say something or comment on the fact that Rin had sought out him to have his freak out, it really wasn’t the right time or place. Rin just needed a friend, and he, Makoto was going to be the best friend possible.

So when he went back out to the living room to see Rin tucked up on the couch, eyes puffy and red but otherwise focused on the television, Makoto only smiled and sat next to him.

“Do you have anything to eat?” Rin asked, not looking over. “I guess I’m just…”

“No! It’s fine,” Makoto grinned and climbed to his feet again, heading to the kitchen. He peeked in the fridge and frowned. “Uh, We do have food. And I’m sure it’s eatable. But…”

Rin glanced from where he was sitting on the couch. “You can’t cook, can you?”

Makoto gave an innocent shrug.

Pushing himself off the couch with a grumble, Rin headed to the kitchen, moving Makoto aside. “Why do you have so much damn fish,” he muttered, staring into the fridge.

Makoto only grinned wider as Rin, annoyed at Makoto’s lack of cooking skills, seemed to forget for a moment why he was actually here.

\--

“If you’re really over being an actor, you could always be a chief,” Makoto said, resisting the urge to scrap up the last of the food with his fingers.

Rin rolled his eyes and took another swig of water. “This was just basic survival food,” Rin muttered, flushing regardless. “I’m horrified that you can’t even cook.”

“My roommate does!” Makoto argued.

“The one who eats all that mackerel?” Rin countered, grinning. “That doesn't seem healthy.”

“It probably isn’t,” Makoto agreed with a sigh.

Rin collected the plates and dropped them in the sink, before heading back to the living room and Makoto frowned, following him.

“Just so you know, I’m not kicking you out!” he said hastily, as Rin turned from where he was sitting on the couch. “I just want to know… do you want to crash here for the night? Will people be looking for you?”

“Eh,” Rin said with a half-hearted shrug. “They probably are. I said I might be back tonight and slipped away.”

Makoto froze, eyes wide. “Wait what?” he said. “You can’t just… This is bad! What if people are searching for you and..!” he noticed Rin’s phone on the table and moved to grab it but Rin grabbed his arm before he could.

“Makoto,” Rin said slowly, tugging him away from the phone. “It’ll be alright. I’ll get yelled at or something. It won’t be your fault.”

“I… I didn’t say that,” Makoto said, wincing internally as he stuttered. His mind should have been focused on trying to get Rin’s phone to make sure people _weren’t_ frantically looking for him, but he could only focus on Rin’s hand, warm and tight, wrapped around his wrist. “I…”

Rin raised an eyebrow and let go of his wrist, and Makoto blinked, mind focusing on the situation at hand. “Are _you_ alright?” Rin said, leaning forward. “You don’t look so good all of a sudden.”

There were a few things Makoto could do: he could laugh it off and say it was stress or make a joke of his terrible (but getting a lot better) English skills; he could ignore Rin’s comment and the flips his heart was doing even more frequently; or… well.

Makoto reached forward and grabbed at Rin’s arm and Rin blinked, echoing Makoto’s earlier movement and glanced down. “Is something wrong?” Rin asked, laughing slightly.

Makoto smiled and leaned forward, forcing Rin against the back of the couch and kissed him. Rin went still for a moment and Makoto almost drew back, apologies on the tip of his tongue when Rin surged forward, wrapping his arms around Makoto’s neck. Makoto released Rin’s arm and started to wrap it around his shoulders when Rin let out a reluctant groan and leaned away, pushing gently at Makoto’s chest.

“You don’t…” Rin started, not looking up at him. “I can’t.”

Makoto didn’t reach up to his lips to touch them even though he really, _really_ , wanted to and instead plastered a smile on his face. “I’m sorry! I should have asked,” and he made to lean away because it was fine that his heart felt like it was being squeezed and was moments away from popping.

Apparently Rin was sensing what Makoto was doing because he tugged Makoto onto the spot next to him on the couch without looking up. “Mako,” Rin said, and Makoto stared at the ground. Makoto felt hands on his arms and turned to see Rin staring him in the eye, determined. “I can’t. I want to. I really, _really_  want to, god you don’t even know how much I want to, but I can’t do that to you.”

Makoto’s face screwed up in confusion. “To me?” He echoed. “But I kissed you!”

“You don’t want to date me,” Rin pleaded. “This month has been so, so great but I’m never in one place. And my life is always on the news, and I don’t want that to happen to you. You’re nice, and you’re good, and I don’t want your name to be associated with my fuck ups or anything.” Makoto nodded slowly and looked down and he could hear Rin growling at him. “I’m trying to help you! I don’t want you hurt, okay?!”

Makoto knew that and he realized that it was probably so, so dumb to want someone who was constantly being chased by fans. But for as famous as Rin was, he was just… Rin.

“But,” Makoto said softly. “Pretend for a moment like you’re not famous and pretend like you can have anything you want.” He tilted his head and smiled a little sadly. “I’ll always be here for you as a friend and I’ll accept if you don’t… want to date me, but don’t make it because you think you’ll drag me down or something.”

And Rin stared at him for a long, long moment, before practically tackling Makoto onto the arm of the couch. “Fuck it,” he breathed, and kissed him so deeply Makoto practically saw stars.

They kissed like that for a long time, with Rin half laying on Makoto and Makoto ignoring the pain in his back from the couch because he had Rin in his arms kissing him. And it wasn’t the Rin of the celebrity gossip magazines or the Rin from the big screen but the Rin that he discovered could cook and the Rin that had made fun of his English and…

“I like you,” Rin said, wiggling down Makoto’s torso and kissing his neck. “I do and I don’t want you think that I do this with just anyone okay?”

Makoto hissed when Rin started to suck on a spot on his neck, and he scrambled for something for his arms to do. “Just,” he began, letting out a whine when Rin gently nipped at his neck. “Just for people with terrible English?”

Rin looked up and grinned. “Yep.”

Makoto tugged him forward and kissed him again and then he heard a key in the lock and he froze, clutching Rin tightly. Rin blinked, apparently not hearing the key, and gave Makoto a weird look until he let out a yelp and tumbled off Makoto.

Makoto didn’t even bother looking up. Instead of covered his face with his hands and wished the ground would open up. “Haru, I thought I said to text me!”

Haru hummed as he stepped inside. “Have all your study sessions been like this?” Haru asked, and Makoto’s face somehow got even hotter.

“Rin,” Makoto said, from behind his hands. “This is my roommate, Haru.”

“You have a problem,” Haru said, cutting on what would probably be Rin’s scathing retort to being interrupted. “There are a lot of people outside.”

“What?” Makoto said, uncovering his face. “People?”

Rin’s eyes widened and he glanced at the window, looking down onto the street. “Oh no,” he said softly, quickly moving to his phone to turn it on. “Oh shit.”

Makoto followed him, but Haru quickly shut the curtains before he could get close to the window. “Makoto,” he said softly. “Did anyone see you guys?”

“No!” Makoto exclaimed, but then froze, turning to Rin. “Did anyone recognize you before I got here?”

Rin chose not to answer, instead only hissing “Shiiiit” as his phone, now back on, started buzzing out of control. “This is a problem.” He quickly grabbed his jacket and his hat, pulled out his sunglasses, and frowned to himself. “Shit.”

“You can…” Makoto said, head buzzing. “You can maybe stay here and they’ll go away?”

“There’s a lot of people,” Haru interjected.

“He’s right,” Rin said, shoving his hat onto his head. “It’ll be better if I just leave. Maybe they won’t figure out which apartment I was in.”

It made sense. It really did, it was logical and it made sense and Rin was beginning to open the door but Makoto stopped him, one arm in front.

“I…” Makoto started. “I’ll still be here. I promise.” Rin looked up at him and Makoto squeezed his eyes shut, trying to think of a better phrase. “I mean… I really like you too, and I don’t want this to be just a thing and—“

Rin cut him off by pulling him down for a kiss. “It’ll be fine,” Rin said when he finally pulled away. “Let me just get them off your back.”

“Uh.”

They both turned to see Haru holding up his phone. “You might be wrong about that.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Rin snapped, moved away from Makoto to step towards Haru’s phone. Rin then froze. When he finally recovered, he pulled out his own phone, moving aside to make a call.

Makoto stepped forward and Haru handed over his phone. Makoto saw in a clear photo of himself and Rin standing in front of his apartment complex on some celebrity blog site. The headline above the picture screamed, “Love in the Air for Matsuoka?” Makoto’s eyes widened and he took great care not to drop the phone, instead using both hands to give it back to Haru and collapsed onto the couch.

“Makoto…” Haru said, and Makoto realized that his phone was going off on the table. It must have been on vibrate and he hadn’t really thought anything of it, but…

Without asking, Haru grabbed it off the table, unlocked the phone, and started flipping through Makoto’s text.

“Your little sister texted you. Rei sent something. Nagisa says he wants a spectacular toast at the wedding,” Haru said, before closing the phone and handing it to Makoto. “Maybe you shouldn’t look at this right now. There are a lot of texts here.”

“Oh,” Makoto said softly, glancing over to Rin who was finally closing his phone, and turning to face him. “What did your team say?”

Rin gripped his phone tightly and moved to the couch, kneeling in front of Makoto. “You really do like me, right?” he said, and Makoto’s eyes widened. “Because if you don’t, I wouldn’t ask you to do this. But…”

Before he could finish, there was a loud pounding on the door. Rin sighed and Haru raised an eyebrow. Makoto gently moved past Rin to answer because he was programmed to at play at being polite.  But he opened the door to a man with bright red hair (or was it orange?) with a dark black suit and black sunglasses and Makoto’s eyes widened a little. He didn’t even get out a “Hi, may I help you?” before the man moved past him into the apartment.

“Well,” the man said to Rin, who was scowling. “You’ve made a mess.”

“Yeah well,” Rin shot back, shrugging. “That’s life, Mikoshiba.”

The man, Mikoshiba, rolled his eyes and made to head out of the apartment but Rin grabbed at Makoto’s arm, clutching at the fabric of his shirt.

“I’ll fix this,” Rin said. “I’m serious. I’ll make sure they strike your name from the articles and …”

“His name’s already out there,” Mikoshiba said and Rin scowled.

“I…” Makoto said. Before he could say anything, before his mind could even process this, he felt something pressing against his back and he turned. Haru stood there, holding Makoto’s backpack, phone, and wallet, and gave him a look.

“You’ll be okay,” he said. “Just keep me updated.”

Makoto nodded and he turned to Rin, who, despite the situation grinned. Mikoshiba sighed but nodded towards the door. “Do you have any sunglasses?” he asked. “The lights could get pretty bright.”

Makoto shook his head and Mikoshiba sighed, shrugging out of his jacket and tossing it over Makoto’s head. “Keep your head down,” he advised, “and follow our lead.”

\--

Although Rin was guiding him on one side him and Mikoshiba firmly held his arm on his other, Makoto was _not_ ready for this. Even with Mikoshiba’s coat hastily thrown over his head, he could still feel the heat from the lights and could see the flashes, and the people. There were just so, so many people all around them. He could swear he felt hands on him, reaching and trying to pull him away, but he also felt Rin’s hand gripping his tightly, and he squeezed his eyes shut, hastily following after.

When they finally got to the car, and Makoto slid inside after Rin, he practically gulped in the air, glad to be away from all the people. The screaming and the noise had become only a dull roar inside his head, but if he glanced outside, he’d seen it hadn’t actually gone away. He sucked in another deep breath and turned to Rin.

“How do you _deal_ with that?” he gasped, and Mikoshiba handed him a water bottle.

“He usually doesn’t,” he said as the car started to move. He fixed Rin with a long, hard look. “Because we don’t get into situations like this.”

Rin scowled and turned towards the window, crossing his arms. Makoto didn’t even want to see his apartment complex fade away as they drove, too mindful of the crowds of people who had been surrounding it. Hopefully they’d leave soon, or Haru was going to have a problem trying to get to his swimming practice later that afternoon.

Makoto suddenly thought back to Haru holding out his phone with Makoto’s picture online for all the gossip blogs and he groaned, leaning forward and covering his face with his hands.

He felt something gently touch his back, and he uncovered his eyes to see Rin grip his shoulder. Rin still wasn’t looking over at him, but Makoto appreciated the gesture anyway, and grabbed Rin’s hand, holding it tightly. Rin scoffed, mostly to himself, but kept his eyes on the window.

“How mad is she?” he asked, and Mikoshiba sighed, running a hand through his hair.

“Well,” he admitted with a shrug. “She’s not happy. And neither is Gou.” He fixed Rin with a hard look. “And you know how I feel about Gou being upset.”

Rin huffed, and slipped his hand out of Makoto’s grip, crossing his arms. “I told her she signed me up for too many events,” he grumbled. “And would you mind not talking about my sister like that while I’m right here?”

Mikoshiba leaned against the back of his seat and exhaled slowly, before turning his gaze back to Makoto. Makoto froze, clutching the water bottle, and sat up suddenly, as Mikoshiba grinned and leaned forward.

“I never actually introduced myself, did I?” He said, holding out his hand. “Mikoshiba Seijuurou, head of security for this Matsuoka and not another one, unfortunately.” He smirked as Makoto nervously held out a hand, wincing as Seijuurou shook it vigorously. “And if Rin is forcing you to go through this hell and meet his family this early, I guess I'll be seeing you a lot then.”

“Family?” Makoto echoed, looking over to Rin.

Scowling, Rin finally turned to them, red eyes flashing. “Oi! Stop freaking him out. He’ll be fine.”

Seijuurou hummed and leaned back again, crossing his arms behind his head. “Have fun dealing with Nitori,” he said, closing his eyes. “Or your sister.”

Makoto did not gulp dramatically like he was in the middle of a comedy movie and the camera focus was on him. But his eyes did widened even more and he did have the resist the urge to back out of this because even as his mind was beginning to think that, Rin reached over and grabbed his hand again.

“It’ll be fine,” Rin said. Makoto would’ve felt more assured that he was right if Rin didn’t sound like he was busy trying to convince himself as well as Makoto. “I promise.”

\--

The limo (car? It didn’t seem that much like a limo but Makoto didn’t have much to compare it to) pulled up to the back of a very, _very_ fancy hotel that Makoto didn’t even think would allow him to look at on for longer than a few seconds. There was no one around the entrance, just another guy in a black suit with an earpiece at the door, and Seijuurou slipped back into professional form and beckoned the two of them inside.

It was kind of cool, if Makoto forgot _why_ he was here and how many people had been outside his apartment building. Kinda like a secret agent movie.

Rin hadn’t let go of his hand since they’d gotten out of the car. As they maneuvered through the hotel, up service elevators and down long, really fancy looking hallways to what Makoto only could assume was the nicest room in the building, Rin’s hand grew sweatier and he clung to Makoto tighter. Makoto only squeezed back.

But as they opened the door to the room, Rin dropped his hand and Makoto didn’t have the time to feel upset or disheartened as a flash of silver all but launched itself into Rin’s space, sobbing and crying.

“Matsuoka-san! You _promise_ you wouldn’t do that anymore!” the person clutching to Rin practically shrieked, and Rin sighed, giving Makoto a look. “If I give you an interview schedule, you _can’t_ just turn off your phone! Your mother is so mad! Your _sister_ is mad! You’re only lucky Yamazaki-san was here to step in! What are we going to do now?!”

Makoto blinked slowly as Rin practically peeled the person off of him, holding him out arms length. “Makoto,” Rin said, nodding to the person. “Nitori Aiichiro. My PA.” At Makoto’s blank stare, Rin sighed again. “My personal assistant.”

Nitori wailed again and started hitting Rin with a rolled up piece of paper. “It doesn’t matter if I make wonderfully color coded schedules if you _don’t follow them!_ ”

“Rin.”

Nitori and Rin froze and turned to the voice coming from farther inside the room. Makoto followed their stares to see a young woman approach, with long red hair and red piecing eyes just like Rin’s. Makoto’s eyes widened and burst into loud giggles

He mainly blamed his reaction on the situation, being in the nicest hotel in the city with an international movie star who Makoto was now, apparently, going to be in gossip magazines with, so he didn’t really appreciate Rin looking at him like he had lost his mind.

“Ah!” Makoto said, once he finally got himself under control. Or, as under control as he could, because he was still giggling around every word. “You must be Rin’s sister, Gou!”

She gave him a long, hard look, and his grin widened. So that must be what hysteria felt like.

After a while, she relaxed, rolling her eyes and poking Makoto hard. “It’s _Kou_ ,” she said, and Makoto nodded. “And come on. You’re going to meet our mom.”

Without giving him a chance to argue (not that he was really going to, of course), she grabbed at his shirt and dragged him with her. He could vaugly tell Rin was behind him, possibly dragging Nitori beside him, but any fear or rational thought that he had kind of faded away when they entered the living room (how big _was_ this room anyway?) and an older woman was sitting inside. There was a black haired young man beside her and they both looked up Gou, er, Kou stomped into the room and all but shoved Makoto in front of her.

“Here’s why Rin keeps missing interviews,” she said, crossing her arms.

“Hey!” Makoto said, righting himself after stumbling. He tried to ignore the way his ears turned hot and straightened himself off. “I’m Tachibana Makoto and I…”

The woman turned to look at him and he clammed up. She looked… fierce and powerful, and somehow all the charm and strength Rin had and multiplied by like a _thousand_ and Makoto barely felt adequate to be breathing the same air as she was, much less being in her presence.

The black haired man raised an eyebrow and lifted his phone, where pictures of Makoto and Rin scrolled by. Makoto gulped. “I know who you are,” he started, standing slowly. “I just don’t know why you’re here.”

Makoto gulped slightly. He wasn’t short by any stretch of the imagination but this guy made _him_ feel tiny. “We were just…” he said, all his gusto vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.

Before he could say anything else to fool himself, Rin slipped in front of him, crossing his arms. “Relax Sousuke,” he said. “I was tutoring him in English. He’s a good guy.”

Oh gosh. Yamazaki _Sousuke_? If Rin was a popular actor, Sousuke was _huge_. Even Makoto had seen a Yamazaki film. Who _hadn’t_? He was all tall, dark, and brooding and … uh. Makoto gulped. Somehow that tall, dark and brooding was a lot less attractive when it was directed at him, complete with a menacing stare.

“Tutoring,” the woman asked, raising an eyebrow. “You know the types of rumors that are going to spread, from you skipping interviews and press junkets, and you did it all to tutor some local boy?”

Rin scowled, gritting his teeth. “He’s not just some local boy, mom. If you gave me a chance to—”

“Tachibana,” she said, talking over Rin. Makoto froze. She sighed and stood quickly, brushing her pants with a sharp efficiency. “Name your price.”

“What?” Makoto said. He looked over to Rin who gripped his hands into fists. “Excuse me, ma’am?”

She sighed, as though the very act of talking to him was exhausting. “I know your type, wheeling money out of popular actors and acting as hanger-ons. But I will not let that happen to my son. Now. Name your price, so you can leave him alone.”

Makoto blinked a few times and realized that his eyes were watering. “I…” he started, when Rin’s slammed his hand on the table in front of them, causing him to jump.

“He is not like that!” Rin shouted.

“They are all like that,” his mother argued, and Sousuke shrugged in the background.

“Your last three have been, at least,” he said, and Rin’s let out something very similar to a yell.

“Maybe I don’t want to do this shit anymore!” He exclaimed, knocking over the papers that scattered the table. Nitori let out a shriek and immediately went to clean them up, and Makoto realized as the papers flittered onto the ground, that they were filled with information about _him_. There were his high school grades and his apartment address and information about his family and even notes about Haru…? “I don’t want to be some puppet for the public eye, and if I want to fucking tutor some guy in a language he’s awful in, I should be able to do that without needing to alert the media!”

Rin’s mother must have said something to Nitori or given him a look, or used magic mind reading powers, because Nitori immediately stopped cleaning up the papers and popped to his feet, grabbing Makoto’s arm.

“Hey! Wait a minute,” Makoto exclaimed, trying to tug out of his grip.

“We need to talk in peace,” Rin’s mother said, waving him off and moving to sit back down.

Makoto let himself be dragged off. But there was something he noticed, the tense lines in Rin’s back and the fact that earlier today, practically a lifetime ago, Rin had been crying on him, saying the exact same thing. He felt like he was in one of those dramas Haru always watched, or even Rin had acted in, where he needed to run in and give some dramatic speech about his true love and their passion and how he really loved Rin. Even if that would have been stupid, it was at least _something_ and he didn’t want to let Rin deal with this alone and….

By the time he’d made up his mind to do something, the door to the room Rin was in slammed shut and Nitori huffed and let him go.

“I’m so sorry!” Nitori exclaimed, rushing aside. “I can get you some water if you’d like! Maybe that would help!”

“I…” Makoto said, sighing and moving to sit in a chair. “Sure. Water would be nice.”

He smiled faintly at the silver haired boy, rushing about and looking so much more nervous than he was, and tried not to groan too loudly. Even if he did just walk back in there, what would he say? No matter how many actors were in that room, and no matter how he did feel about Rin, this wasn’t a drama.

He sighed to himself and pulled out his phone, sighing when he noticed that he had a missed call, probably from Haru. He thumbed it open before his eyes grew wide when he realized the call _wasn’t_ from Haru. There were a _lot_ of missed messages and calls from numbers he didn’t recognize, and when he opened his email account, his inbox was packed with messages that ad subject lines like “Interested in a tell all interview?”

With a grimace, he went to check Twitter, and apparently he enjoyed suffering, as he sat and actually read through his mentions. Rin hadn’t tweeted anything in a while, obviously, but Makoto had a lot of tweets to him telling him he wasn’t good enough for someone as god-like as Rin and he needed to get the hell away from such perfection.

Makoto stared at his phone, scrolling down and growing even more saddened with each new message when a water bottle appeared in his vision. “Ah, thanks Nitori—” he started, before blinking at the smaller orange hair boy in front of him. “You’re… not Nitori.”

The boy grinned. “Nope! I’m Mikoshiba Momotarou and you can call me Momo for short! I—” and whatever he was going to say was cut off as Nitori grabbed his arm.

“You’re not supposed to be here!” he said, practically flailing as Momo tried to escape his grasp. “You’re supposed to be at the television station!”

“Matsuoka-san isn’t there so why should I be!” Momo exclaimed, wiggling to get away. “It’s not fair!”

And for as weird as this Momo was, he provided Makoto the distraction he needed, both from Nitori’s watchful eyes and from those… unkind messages online. He climbed to his feet and quickly rushed to the door to the room, tugging it open.

“Excuse me!” he said, stepping inside and shutting the door behind him, so Nitori and Momo fighting wouldn’t interrupt his resolve.

Rin was sitting on the couch next to Sousuke, looking far from okay but a lot calmer than he had been earlier, but he sat up when he saw Makoto. “What are you…?”

“Would it be easier on Rin if I just left?” Makoto said, refusing to look at Rin. He could see out of the corner of his eye Rin climbing to his feet but Makoto held firm. “I’m… I’m not going to ask for money because that’s awful. If anything, I should be paying him for all those tutoring sessions! But,” he looked down at the ground. “I like him. He’s a great guy and if it will help him, I will leave. I didn’t realize what would happen by me joining him here.”

He didn’t really want to argue, he just wanted to go home and go to bed and forget this had ever happened, but before he made it to the door, he felt Rin’s hand grab his wrist.

“You can’t just _leave_ ,” Rin said.

“If it makes it…” Makoto started and Rin sighed before turning him around.

“It doesn’t. It really doesn’t,” he scowled. “If you leave now, the media is going to hound you and if we distance our self from you, it’s going to get so much worse because they’ll think something was going on. And… I don’t want you to go. I don’t care if it makes things worse for me, I don’t want you to leave alright?” He gripped at Makoto’s shirt. “I’ll make sure people can’t talk shit about you and I’ll take the heat but I just…” he sniffled softly and Makoto let out a small sigh.

“I think I have some tissues in my bag if you need to cry?” Makoto offered and Rin hit him in the arm.

“I’m _not_ crying,” Rin hissed, despite the droplets of water coming from his eye. “I like you, you jerk. And your English is awful and I can’t inflict that upon the world knowing I could still help you.”

Makoto grinned and wrapped his arms around Rin tightly. “I don’t want to go,” he said softly, as Rin hugged him back. “I really like your terrible teaching.”

Rin jerked away, looking ready to fight him, when Kou coughed in the background, causing the two of them to jump apart. “Well,” Kou said, smirking. “While that was _quite_ adorable, we do still have an issue.”

Rin nodded, and moved back to the couch, dropping his hand in Makoto’s. “Damage control. I know,” he said. “Just… how many interviews am I going to have to do?”

Kou hummed and flipped through her schedule, before turning to her mother, who in turn, gave a long sigh and drummed her hands on the couch. “Quite a lot,” she admitted. “Between this and the movie press you’ve missed out on…”

“I can take care of some of the movie junkets,” Sousuke offered, leaning back on the couch. Makoto glanced over to see Sousuke shrugging. “Or Rin and I can do them together. He’s always been such a hardass that maybe a question on his love life might loosen him up a little.”

“Hey, there will be no love life questions!” Rin said, scowling

Kou hummed. “I dunno. It would make you more approachable.” She looked like she had more to say, but Rin grabbed Makoto’s arm before she could, beginning to drag him off. Kou’s eyes widened. “Hey! Wait a minute, we’re not done here!”

“We are for now,” Rin muttered under his breath, and Makoto stumbled to keep up. His shirt was going to get stretched out if people didn’t stop using it to tug him from place to place.

They passed Momo and Nitori (still fighting? Yeesh), and went into another room. Makoto practically fell inside as Rin released him, shutting and locking the door behind him.

Makoto glanced around and felt his stomach drop. “Is this…?” He started, noting the bed behind him. “We’re not going to…?”

Rin raised an eyebrow, noting Makoto’s expression. “Ew, my mother and sister are like _right there_ ,” he said, grimacing. “But sit.” Makoto tentatively sat on the edge of the bed and Rin paced the room, chewing on his fingernails. He didn’t say anything for a long time, and Makoto tried to appreciate the beauty of being so, so high up, able to overlook every nook and cranny of the city.

Suddenly Rin was right in front of him, resting his arms on Makoto’s shoulders. Bright red eyes staring intensely into Makoto’s green ones, and Makoto sighed, and ran a hand through Rin’s hair.

“This has been the weirdest date ever,” Makoto said, quirking a smile up to Rin. “Definitely memorable, though.”

Rin’s expression went blank, jaw dropping. He pulled away, and gently shoved Makoto’s arm. “Tch. Really? After everything that’s happened, that’s what you’re going to say?”

Makoto shrugged. “I mean, I said everything else I could. What else can I say?” He trailed off as Rin gestured for him to move back, sitting more onto the bed. He did, only to let out a gasp as Rin moved forward to sit in front of him, practically straddling him. “What are you doing?” he hissed, trying to politely move away from Rin.

“I didn’t want to remind you of this in front of them,” Rin said, leaning his head down onto Makoto’s shoulder. Makoto stopped trying to squirm away, as Rin inhaled quietly. “But dating me sucks. Like, _really_ sucks. You will never get a moment’s piece. They will critique you for everything you do. Anyone you spend time with that isn’t me, you will be scrutinized and everything you _do_ will be judged.” He gripped his hands in Makoto’s shirt. “And if you want to leave, you can.” Makoto made to protest because he already _did_ his dramatic proclamation and Rin leaned back.

Maybe this wasn’t the best position for them to have this argument, because no matter how serious Rin’s expression was and how incredibly important what he was saying, all Makoto could think about was… well… not that.

“Makoto,” Rin said, cupping Makoto’s face with his hands. “I’m mean and vicious and I have sharp teeth.”

“I noticed,” Makoto said, grinning.

Rin scoffed. “And I have terrifying fans who think they own me and I probably won’t be in the city again after this for a long time. You’re going to have people following you around for pictures and they’ll take sound bites about what I’m doing and bug you with them and you’re not even going to get to have _me_.”

As if to prove what Makoto would be missing, Rin ground down and Makoto hissed, scrambling to grip at Rin’s back. “I-I get it,” Makoto breathed. He coughed, trying to steady his voice. “I don’t want my life to become something people read about in magazines but…” Makoto exhaled again, unclenched one hand from Rin’s back, and brushed a piece of hair out of his eyes. “But I do really like you. And if it takes me going through all of that to spend even a little more time with you, then so be it.”

Rin blinked. And then he blinked again. And when he kept blinking, Makoto realized he was trying not to cry, and something about that made a laugh bubble up inside his belly. Instead of actually laughing, Makoto leaned forward and kissed him. Rin wrapped his arms around Makoto’s shoulders and leaned forward and they both toppled onto the bed.

“I find a way to _end_ anyone who bothers you,” Rin said. He started trailing kisses down Makoto’s neck, similar to how he had done back on Makoto’s couch and Makoto whined and leaned back, giving Rin better access. Makoto hissed when he felt teeth nip at his throat. “I promise, okay?”

Makoto tugged Rin’s chin upwards and Rin blinked up to him. “I’d like that,” he said, and leaned forward to kiss him again.

“Hey!” They both jerked apart as Kou started pounding on the door. Makoto sat up as Rin quickly climbed off him, heading towards the door with shaking legs. “If you have sex in there while we’re out here trying to help _you_ , I will be _so_ mad!”

“Can’t I get a little privacy?” Rin practically growled back, moving to unlock the door. He didn’t quite get there, with Makoto leaning down to kiss him again. Rin leaned away from the door to wrap his arms around Makoto’s neck and—

“Open! The! Door!”

Makoto laughed and tugged away from Rin, gently nudging him with his forehead. “I think she’ll break down the door.”

Rin snorted. “Yeah. She probably will.” He reached for the handle, and paused, ignoring Kou’s pounding and turned to Makoto again, frowning. “Are you sure?”

Makoto rolled his eyes and smiled. “For you?” he said, moving past Rin to unlock the door. “Yeah.”

\--

A month later, Makoto sat at his home in Iwatobi, his phone sitting in the middle of the table. Haru, Nagisa, and Rei all sat around the table, staring at Makoto’s phone intensely.

“Maybe, if we just call him…” Nagisa said, his fingers inching closer to the phone. Makoto gave him a look and Nagisa frowned. “Mako-chaaaan, it’s not fair! You have a celebrity at your beck and call but you won’t even _call_ him.” He scowled, crossing his arms. “And it’s all because of me that you guys even met in the first place!”

“Nagisa,” Makoto scolded gently, shaking his head. “Rin said he’d call when he dropped by around four. There’s still an hour or so.”

Rei shoved his glasses up onto his nose. “After not seeing each other for a month, you’d decided to have Matsuoka-san meet _us_? I still cannot believe it.”

“Eh,” Haru said, playing a game on his phone. “He wasn’t that great.” Makoto frowned over to Haru, who, despite not looking up, shrugged. “He was too busy trying to shove his tongue down your throat for me to get a good impression.”

“Guys…” Makoto said, his voice dangerously close to a whine. “I just mentioned that my friends would like to meet him. He’s doing this as a favor to me, okay? Be nice.”

“After what you’ve gone through the past month…” Haru mumbled, still not looking up from the game. Makoto sighed.

Rin had been right. Even with all the promises in the world to keep Makoto out of it, Makoto's picture was still being connected to Rin's celebrity status. Even if his name wasn't out there, if one recognized Makoto, it was really easy to find pictures of him and Rin, running from the paparazzi that day. As the time passed, people stopped trying to take _as_ many pictures as they did initially, but every day or so, when Makoto walked to class or tried to study in student longue, he’d notice out of the corner of his eye people sneakily trying to take a picture of him with their phone. It bothered him a lot at first, but he’d somehow gotten used to it.

It had gotten even worse when Rin finally did a few talk shows and had mentioned that he had a new boyfriend, not by name, but people kept staring around campus and it was just weird.

Though nothing was as weird as the stories Nagisa kept sending to him. People apparently got _really_ creative when they wrote about celebrity couples. Creative… and explicit.

Makoto blushed at the thought and shook his head. “It hasn’t been so bad,” he said.

“As long as you’re happy,” Haru said, finally looking up from his game.

Makoto smiled.

The front door rang and he glanced down at his phone. “That’s weird. He said he’d call first,” he said, climbing to his feet. “Maybe mom left her keys?”

He opened the door and the gentle scolding to his mom about her forgetfulness of her keys died away as a young man with thick black glasses and bright red hair tucked under a baseball cap looked up at him and grinned.

“I’m early,” Rin said apologetically, shoving his hands into his pockets. “But the interview let out a little earlier than I expected and I had my driver take us straight here and…” he trailed off, as Makoto kept staring at him. Rin bristled and frowned. “What, do I look weird?”

Makoto blamed his wide eyed stared to a month of only seeing Rin on a computer screen in interviews with carefully laid out outfits and neatly combed hair and not the guy who made fun of his English. Something in Makoto snapped and he reached and tugged Rin forward with a hug.

“Hey!” Rin exclaimed, but Makoto only buried his face against Rin’s neck.

“I missed you,” Makoto said softly, and Rin froze. “I missed you _so much_.”

Makoto could feel Rin scoffing. He leaned away slightly when Rin stopped him and pulled him close.

“I missed you too,” Rin said, and tugged him down for a kiss.

Makoto could hear Nagisa shriek “Is that Rinrin?” and Rei and Nagisa rushing to the door, and Haru’s grunt of disinterest. And he could feel Rin grumble next to him, slightly pulling away.

But Makoto leaned forward and locked his eyes with Rin, and Rin smiled up to him, and really, it had all been worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading, and I thought I'd add to the end notes that there's a sequel, called [No Place I'd Rather Be](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4221849), if you'd like to check it out!
> 
> Find me on [tumblr](http://legendaryguardian.tumblr.com/)!


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